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Title: Ethical reporting of ESG in company financial statements - a South African interpretation

Authors: Neels Kilian

Addresses: North-West University, North-West Province, Mahikeng, South Africa

Abstract: MSCI in the USA has been implementing environmental, social and (corporate) governance (ESG) for the past 45 years (MSCI ESG Metrics, 2020). ESG identifies eight risks which incorporate 56 factors in total. These factors can be phrased as questions requiring either yes or no answers in order to identify whether the business activities and/or company practices of any company will be sustainable or not in the future. In this article, ESG is discussed with reference to MSCI, King IV and why companies (including fund managers and pension funds in South Africa) should be reporting on ESG in their financial statements as part of ethical reporting practices. The research presented in this article is neither quantitative nor qualitative data were collected, for example group discussions/interviews.

Keywords: ESG metrics; ethics; ethical reporting; King IV; fund manager; pension fund; corporate governance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBCRM.2021.120022

International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management, 2021 Vol.11 No.4, pp.295 - 309

Received: 01 May 2021
Accepted: 02 Oct 2021
Published online: 04 Jan 2022 *